Chapman University to receive $10 million endowment

ORANGE – Christine and Lon Cross visited Chapman University for the first time recently and were taken by the campus' beauty, the friendliness of faculty and staff, and students' devotion to learning.

That's when the couple decided to leave their legacy at the university: On Friday, the university announced the couple would commit $10 million to Chapman to fund need-based scholarships.

"We met many wonderful students who told us the effect scholarships had on their lives," said Christine Cross, 65. "A Chapman education is too important and too valuable to be available only to those who have the means to attend."

University President Jim Doti made the announcement during his annual State of the University address.

"Of all gifts that a donor can bestow upon a university, nothing has more impact on students than scholarships," Doti said. "We are immensely grateful to Christine for her generous commitment, which will open the door to a Chapman education to countless students in years to come."

Christine and Lon Cross, 67, live in Orange Park Acres. They are retired from the hospital-management business.

Doti shared during his speech how he met the couple two years ago while waiting for a valet at a function in Huntington Beach. Doti invited the couple for a tour of the campus. The couple had never been to the school even though they lived just a few miles away.

The $10 million gift will establish a permanent Christine and Lon Cross Endowed Scholarship Fund. The commitment is among the largest Chapman, a campus with 8,000 students, has ever received. In 2009, Chapman received an anonymous $25 million gift to build a new performing-arts center.